Enslaved childhoods in eighteenth-century Awadh

Hijras and South Asian historiography

“…Early modern hijra s and khwajasara s occupied dissimilar social positions and embodied differing forms of gender. Khwajasara s were understood as men and embodied elite norms of masculinity through their dress, education, adab (ethical behavior), and efforts to become “ideal fathers and householders” (Abbott, 2020, p. 78; Hinchy, 2015). In contrast, hijra s expressed femininity through their names, dress, grooming, and gestures, possibly in combination with masculinity.…”

“…Research on the Mughal Empire and its "successor states" 8 in the 16th-19th centuries, has shown that khwajasaras mediated access to the female and male spaces of elite and ruling households, in which they performed various service and administrative roles (Chatterjee, 1999, pp. 44-57;Hinchy, 2015Hinchy, , 2018Lal, 2018). Intimacy with their slaveholder was key to khwajasaras' ability to secure positions in state bureaucracies as officials, military commanders, scholars, etc (Kalb, 2020).…”

History of Colonial Education: Key Reflections

“…Alternative approaches reflected different funding structures, for example, in Bengal the teaching in the pathshala gurumohashoys emphasized local mahajani accounts and training for commercial and agricultural success, while more religiously based tols aimed to encourage a Sanskrit brahmanical tradition based around religious texts (Shahidullah 1996). Indigenous teaching strategies and aims varied widely across the subcontinent, such as the training of merchant's sons in the practicalities and ethics of the profession in Varanasi or relationships of patronage and discipleship of khwajasarais or eunuch slaves in the eighteenth-century Awadh (Kumar 2000;Hinchy 2015). This is evidence of the increasing maturity of the research field because it problematizes the notion of "indigenous" education, demonstrating the diversity of pedagogical aims and methodologies and the variety of hierarchies of caste, gender and occupation and the "exclusions" that were central to these systems and highlights the central role of the locality (Balagopalan 2002).…”

Translucent Citizenship: Khwaja Sira Activism and Alternatives to Dissent in Pakistan

“…For instance, khwaja siras had a social role distinct from that of hijras in that they were male-identified and had a considerably higher social status despite being slaves (Hinchy 2014:278). Moreover, khwaja siras had largely been forcibly castrated as children (Hinchy 2015) while hijras engaged in the voluntary practice of ritualized genital excision during adolescence or adulthood. The fact that not all hijras engaged in physical emasculation (Hinchy 2014 275) is what makes the dissimilarity between the two groups even more stark.…”